The invention of the tank car coincided with the discovery of oil in northwestern Pennsylvania in the 1860s. Oilmen quickly discovered that hauling oil to market in horse-drawn wagons or floating barrels down local streams wasn’t going to do the job as oil production ramped up. The oil industry needed to find a way to […]
Subscribers, you can read Bob Keller’s complete review of this unusual train online here, and then watch the streaming video below. . […]
Gravel-covered siding. Gravel from an adjacent lot can mix with ballast on a siding. Paul partially covered this siding (lower right) at the freight house on his home layout. He embedded the rails of the spur (at left) into the parking lot. On some secondary lines the space between the ties is filled with dirt […]
Feather-topped palm trees are a signature element for any model railroad set in a tropical climate. Author Joseph Kreiss scratchbuilt numerous coconut plams for his HO scale Big Island Rail layout, set in Hawaii in the 1970s. When you can’t live in a tropical paradise, perhaps the next best thing is to model it. That’s […]
Subscribers, you can read Bob Keller’s complete review of this unusual train online here, and then watch the streaming video below. . […]
American roundhouse Roundhouses were found all across the nation once. Now they’re rare gems. These structures began disappearing after the dieselization era. Only a few were left in use by some railroads. Many were eventually demolished or repurposed. Here’s a gallery of them under construction, in use, and after the wrecking ball. […]
Durango & Silverton crew favorite 473 turns a photographers’ special on the Silverton wye during Railfest in August 2009. Her big plow was useful in fighting snow four months later. Robert S. McGonigal Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad engineer Jarrette Ireland assesses the K-28 Mikados:There are many reasons why I personally enjoy the K-28’s, […]
Lloyd Stagner’s book AMERICAN STEAM FINALE, 1954-1970 (South Platte Press, 2001; www.southplattepress.com) is the definitive resource on the end of steam on U.S. Class 1’s and short lines. In “Just Who Was First to Dieselize,” in Diesel Victory (2006), we mentioned 17 U.S. Class 1 railroads that dieselized early. To qualify for the list, the […]
Lionel’s Legacy Command Control System EVERYONE AT CLASSIC TOY TRAINS RUNS TRAINS DIFFERENTLY, and consequently our expectations for Lionel’s new Legacy control system differed. Kent Johnson is Mr. High-Tech, always looking to improve his railroading experience with the latest gadgets. His home O gauge layout includes separately wired blocks, ample powered switches, and realistic operation. […]
The year was 1939, and 29-year-old British stockbroker Nicholas Winton was set to leave for Switzerland on a ski holiday when he answered his phone. It was a friend conducting humanitarian aid in Prague, Czechoslovakia. This friend described the refugee camps in which he worked, and asked Winton to abandon his holiday, come to Prague, […]
For additional scenery tips, don’t miss Essential Model Railroad Scenery Techniques from Kalmbach Books. No muss! No fuss! Just add the ingredients, mix thoroughly, and pour yourself a hillside full of trees. Believe it or not, it really can be just about that simple. I came up with my scrambled-trees technique when I wanted to […]
MTH HO scale Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive This streamlined New York Central J3a Hudson accurately models the art deco curves of its famous prototype. The MTH HO scale “Dreyfuss” Hudson features realistic sound and smoke effects and operates on DC, Digital Command Control (DCC), and MTH Digital Command System (DCS) layouts. Prototype. In 1938 the […]
